AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But his words never reached his lips when something yanked him from my arms. I had just enough sense to realize something was wrong when a blade of steel arched through the dimness and sank into Darius’s side.
CHAPTER 16
Kamari
My scream rattled through me. It clawed across the stone and steel chamber in a piercing shriek. It drowned Darius’s cry of surprise. It concealed the squelch of the blade plunging through fabric and skin again and again in rapid, violent successions. The figure snarled something I couldn’t register as he shoved Darius back, away from him and ran.
A weird fog seemed to pull over me, muffling everything as if I were in a dream being chased by a monster. My brain couldn’t register the scene even as I was diving to the ground, following Darius as he crumpled lifeless. Hands that were mine but felt alien grabbed at the crimson blossoms soaking across his white top. It pooled in a puddle beneath him, soaking hot and sticky through my dress to burn my knees.
In the background, I heard the attacker running in the distance, running with such determination his sneakers pounded as wild and desperate as my heart cracking into my ribs. Somewhere in the detached part of my brain, I recognized that I hadn’t stopped screaming. That I couldn’t stop even asmy hands bunched the abandoned blazer into his wounds to staunch the blood flow.
I don’t know when the screaming stopped — if it did at all.
I don’t know where the EMTs came from, or who called them, only that hand encased in blue gloves were replacing mine. Lights were flashed into his eyes and vitals were taken. Someone asked me questions I tried to answer but my tongue had lost all ability to speak. It tripped and stuttered over the most basic phrase, catching on every hiccup and sob. I must have been useless because they left me alone, focusing on Darius’s still, pale body losing his life force in the middle of the parking garage.
“Is he dead?” I heard myself screaming again, hysterical to the point where even I knew I needed to calm down, but the ability wasn’t there.
A woman with kind eyes took my shoulders gently and forced me to look away from the stretcher they were tucking under Darius.
“He’s not dead,” she assured me gently. “But we need to get him to the hospital. Are you hurt as well?”
I shook my head, craning my neck to see past her to where they were loading him into the ambulance.
“I’m going,” I told anyone who was listening. “I’m going with him.”
No one stopped me.
Someone, possibly the woman, bundled an itchy blanket around me and helped me up into the metal seat next to Darius.
He was so white, almost matching the paper under him. An oxygen mask was strapped across his nose and mouth. The fog inside gave me some hope when I grabbed his hand, only vaguely aware of mine smeared in his blood.
I was covered.
My dress was ruined, not that it mattered. I would have given up everything, burned it all to the ground in exchange for his life.
“Darius?” Even to my own ears, his name was a choked whine, a plea that went unanswered.
The ride to the hospital was a blur of screaming sirens and rapid chatter from the EMTs as they worked over Darius’s body trying to stop the bleeding. I stuffed myself the best I could into the corner keeping out of their way. Darius’s limp, cold fingers stayed locked with mine until I had no choice but to let go.
They wouldn’t let me go into the surgery room when we arrived at the hospital. They left me a crying, bloody mess in the middle of the hallway, watching helplessly as Darius was taken out of sight.
“Oh honey,” a stout, middle aged nurse bustled out from behind the counter, identification badge swinging around her neck. She took my arm. “Are you hurt? Do you need a doctor?”
I shook my head, looking down at the red covering me. “It’s not mine.”
Leshandra heaved a sigh of relief. “Thank heavens. Let’s get you seated in the waiting room, and I’ll see if I can’t get someone to just come and have a look at you, okay?”
I didn’t protest.
I didn’t have the energy.
“I need to make a call,” I rasped. “I have to call…” everyone. I had to let Marcella and Alexander and Lavena and … so many people who had to be there. “I don’t have my phone.”
I’d stupidly left it at home, not wanting to carry it around at the party. Why would I do that? Why would I think that was a good idea? Of course, I would need my phone.
“Well, okay,” Leshandra patted my hands lightly when I started to cry again. “You can use the phone at the counter, okay?”
She set the phone and a box of tissues down at the counter for me. I thanked her as I reached for the receiver and froze.
